Summary

“Do you two feel better, now?” Dobey asks, but Hutch is ready with a defense:

“Captain, look,” he begins, pointing already, “our personal lives have never mattered before, and they shouldn’t matter now. Starsky and I have been friends for years. If anyone’s going to understand me, it’s him, and if the pack has anything to say—”

“Hutch,” Dobey barks, “sit down.”

Hutch does sit, like an obedient dog, but sullenly.

“Hey, be nice,” Starsky says. “Cap, it’s no big deal, alright? Obviously we can keep a secret to ourselves.”

Dobey gives him a withering look, too, and Starsky only grins into it, licking donut glaze off his thumb.

“I should write you two up for unprofessional conduct,” Dobey says. “But once I started I’d never be able to finish the paperwork.”

Tags

Summary

“I hope you’re less rusty at fishing than I am. I haven’t been since I lived on the other coast,” Starsky admits, when they’re settled back in and driving and everybody has donuts to tide them over. “I hope we catch something tasty.”

“Yep, all those years as a sea scout have prepared me for this,” Hutch says, waving a hand at Starsky’s donuts, though when it looks like Starsky will actually eat them all, he takes one, to save him. “It’s trout season, so we should have plenty of luck. And with the modern conveniences we have today, why, it hardly feels like you’re camping at all!”

“You sound like a commercial, Hutch,” Kiko laughs, and Pete joins in, so Hutch proceeds to lecture them in a booming voice about Fun Facts of the Outdoors (most of which are true) until they fall to pieces laughing.

Summary

By the time Hutch arrives, clanking up the street in his junker like there wasn’t anything wrong with it, Starsky has most of the broken coffee cup swept up into the dustpan, and he’s emptying it angrily into the trash. It doesn’t take much to sense that things are not alright, but Starsky isn’t more forthcoming than a glare, so Hutch asks, “What’s wrong? Buddy? Where is—?”

He’s almost afraid to ask, as his mind jumps to the uptick in car thefts they’d been dealing with this week. “No.”

Starsky sighs out heavily, leaning on the trash can and tapping the side with the dust pan. “Unless you came and borrowed it this morning, there’s no other answer. So, if you hear hoofbeats, think ‘Zebra Three’...”

“Starsky, your car?” Hutch is incredulous. Who would steal Starsky's car? He knows how much the car means to Starsky.

Tags

Summary

When the next full moon rolls around, Hutch warns Starsky in plenty of time, when Starsky is driving him to his house.

“I have a dog door installed in the garage now,” Hutch explained. “So I can get in and out in whatever form. I’ll call you the minute I have thumbs again.” Hutch adds, with a teasing wink, “Don’t be caught outdoors too late.”

“I’m starting to think I’m missing out,” Starsky laughs. “Chasing cars, all the pork I can catch… doesn’t sound so bad. Having a whole wolf pack.” He shrugs it all off, a joke he’s content to let go. “Be careful out there. I’m still working on reading my handbook, but I know enough to know it’s not all a big game of frisbee, either.”

Summary

There’s just something not quite right about his roommate. Kenneth Hutchinson, a mouthful and a half and pretty good-looking if Starsky were looking, is the biggest bookworm Starsky’s ever met. And something else is up with him, but Starsky can’t put his finger on it. He keeps suspecting there’s some kind of dog in the room when he’s not in it, but he’d be hard pressed to tell you how any of the slightly long golden hairs that he keeps finding convinces him of that.

“So, some guys and me are going out later on,” Starsky offers, figuring he can probably lure Hutchinson out and get to know him a little better. “You wanna come? There’s a go-go bar up the street.”

“Oh, that sounds like fun,” Hutch says, trying to sound aloof because he’s kind of hopeless at talking to guys he has a crush on. “Can’t tonight, though. I’ve got a date.”

Hutch doesn’t have a date, of course, except for the date he has every full moon. He’s with a new pack since moving down to Bay City, and they’ll probably try to set him up with someone tonight, but it’s kind of hard to use contraception when you’re a werewolf, so he doesn’t like to hook up randomly. After Vanessa, though, it will be nice to get out and meet other wolves.

Summary

Hutch jumps when a nurse touches his arm. Maybe he really had fallen asleep there holding that wall up. “Yeah? Sorry. Yeah?”

“We’re going to move your partner to a room, so if you’ll just stay in the waiting area, we can call you when he’s settled.”

Hutch takes a deep breath to tell her there is no way he’s letting Starsky out of his sight for one minute when another hand lands on his shoulder.

“Come on, son. Walk with me.”

Dobey. And Hutch already yelled at him once today, so he’s probably used up his lifetime quota, and he probably shouldn’t test him again. Hutch glances back at Starsky, watching orderlies and nurses get ready to move him.